Significance overlooked

[lazlo666]

I find it rather saddening that most who post regarding this book view it as "gross" or "boring". In stating so they have completely missed the point. At the time of it's publication both food safety standards and safe working conditions were in a deplorable state. One post said that Sinclair's work was better left to reporters, but these were precisely the type of stories that reporters would not tell. This was due to the fact that the newspapers were owned by the same industrial magnates who did not wish to be forced to implement rational standards on thier industries. Muckrakers like Sinclair exposed the wickedness of the industrial machine and led to reform at great personal risk to themselves. We all owe them a debt of gratitude for our safe food and safe working conditions.

[ArcherSnake]

I read it in the 8th grade, and I still think of it whenever I walk into the meat department or the deli where I work, which, thankfully, is alot cleaner than the facilities depicted in the book.

[Sitaram]

The novel "The Jungle" actually influenced the president of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, to enact federal legislation to create the FDA food and drug administration (or something similar... I forget all the details)

http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/2004/330/index.html?id=pp7.htm

but the impact of the novel was awesome. Just like "Uncle Tom's Cabin" had a tremendous impact on the Civil War and the Abolition of Slavery.

[Aramis]

Maybe it did have good messages to get across, but for the most part, I simply did not enjoy reading it. I especially did not enjoy it as I was curled up in a chair, trying to eat my dinner while reading it... but that's for a whole different reason. Its one redeeming quality in my eyes was that it was an accurate novel depicting a certain period of American history.